lawrenceville

Winter is the time for farm and creamery planning and reflection. So while we inch along at 32 gallons a day right now, we are anticipating upwards of 125 gallons a day in the summer. That’s a lot of Havilah’s for 2019/20 and more tommes, Rarebirds, and Buttercups for this season too!

Here’s a picture of some winter foliage from the farmyard.

But now, what is on our cheese board this week!

Trilby: Everyone’s favorite boozy little stinker. This is the last week or two on this batch, then they go away for a month. (In case you’ve forgotten, Trilby is a small format cheese washed in Dad’s Hat delicious Rye Whiskey). No leaves on them this time of year, sorry. But still big, bold, sweet, vegetal, boozy and complex. Pasteurized milk.

Sugarcube (or Batch 328): This is an experimental mixed rind cheese with a line of ash through the middle for all the drama. May it bring a sweet light to your darkest winter. Pasteurized milk.

Mooncakes! A wilder, limited version of our Buttercup Brie. It features a smorgasbord of penicillium mold strains in addition to the pure-white that we’re accustomed to. PLUS, we’ve added a dash of vegetable ash mixed with a delicate dusting of smoked paprika in the background. What you’ve got here is the unctuous butteriness of our standard Buttercup plus an intriguingly earthy, mushroomy, vegetal finish. Distinctly cave-y, mushroomy, it’s like going spelunking in a cavern with pleasing mushrooms and sea of butter underneath you. Mmmmm….sea of butter. Pasteurized milk.

HerdsmanAvailable now are our early November batches. Very creamy, stone-fruit and lactic aromas, classic tomme flavors. Favorite comment in French accent last week at a Whole Foods event “this reminds me of tomme de savoie, I’ll take it!” Notes of candied lemon and horseradish. Raw milk.

HavilahAugust and Sept 2016 batches. This cheese just gets better and better over the years. Current tasting notes include: butterscotch, broth, grass, caramelized onions, and of course: Butter. Raw milk.

A brief plug for an awesome event we will be at, The Evening of Cheese at the Cheesemakers Resource Conference, 6 PM Tues Feb 13th. If you are a chef/buyer and want to taste the cheese of and talk to an array of Midatlantic regional cheesemakers all in one room, here is the perfect way to see what’s up! Come hungry. About an hour from Philly and right down the road from Stoudts brewing. http://www.dairyheritage.com/evening-of-cheese.php

Are you all recovered from your tryptophan trippin’ and accepting into your life the ceaseless churn of Dominic the Donkey and White Christmas on retail repeat for the next 5 weeks?

In all earnestness, this is the most magical cheese season of the year and you can’t not love it. Parties galore, evenings with friendships and warming tannic wines, cider, stouts, toddies, or an old fashioned by the fire – all you need is a cheese pairing or plate to bring the glow to any of these evenings.

Consider our Havilah with a cider on the sweeter side, or with that old fashioned. Better still perhaps caramelize some onions with cider and back with thinly sliced potatoes adorned with Rarebird. Everyone always lumps Chardonnay with bloomies, but how about a nice stout with our Mooncakes? In any case, the days may be getting shorter, but that’s all the more reason to embrace the holiday and EAT MORE CHEESE!

CHEESE! CHEESE! CHEESE!

Mooncakes, Mooncakes, Mooncakes!

Our friendly blue and light grey penicilliums and few errant blues decided to visit our bloomy room and what a gift they gave us! Mooncakes is essentially our Buttercup, but with non-pure snow white rind and a changed aroma. Distinctly cave-y, mushroomy, it’s like going spelunking in a cavern with pleasing mushrooms and sea of butter underneath you. Mhmmmm….sea of butter. We’ve added some ash to these to give them greater visual Also, tiny lil third pounders available too in addition to standard brie sizes. Pasteurized milk.

Join us November 9 at 1pm for a class on the art of vegetable fermentation! Learn how to make these delicious, highly nutritious foods, and how to incorporate them into your diet. For more information and to sign up, visit the classes page.

Thank you for loving our classes! At your request, we’ve added two more classes to the fall line-up! Now you can also join us on November 30 and December 21 for our “Double-Header Cheemaking Class.” See the classes page for more information.

Philadelphia’s Grid Magazine is featuring our Full Nettle Jack as their cheese of the month! Grid is a free, monthly print publication focused on sustainability issues and initiatives in the Greater Philadelphia area. Here’s what they had to say about Full Nettle Jack :

“This bright-tasting cheese is both vegetal and herbaceous with a kick of vinegary acidity. The taste evokes dill pickles, and would do well as slices on a Cubano sandwich.”

Full Nettle Jack (pictured) is made by Sam Kennedy over near Princeton, New Jersey. He’s the cheesemaker for Cherry Grove Farm, a sustainable dairy that supplies so many great wedges to the Philadelphia area. I’m a big fan of his rustic natural-rinded wheels, like this one (or his nutty Herdsman).”